William Boyd Allison

Allison, William Boyd, 1829–1908, U.S. Senator from Iowa (1873–1908), b. Ashland co., Ohio. He served (1863–71) in the House of Representatives and entered the Senate in 1873. One of the most influential Republican members of Congress, he spoke for the farmers of the Midwest and was considered a political moderate. Allison opposed high tariffs on goods needed in quantity by the farmers and helped to build compromise tariff bills. He changed the bill for "free and unlimited coinage" of silver to allow specified limited coinage and thus gave his name to the Bland-Allison Act.